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World Chess Champions are players who have won a match or tournament for the World Championship at chess. Both men and women can become champion, but no woman has ever been a challenger for the title. There is, however, a separate championship for women. There are also separate championships for specific age groups.
Before 1886, there was no official championship held, but some players were thought to be pre-eminent. From 1948 on, the World Chess Federation FIDE held the championships. Between 1993 and 2006 there were two world champion titles, the FIDE one and the classical one.
The 2013 World Championship match took place between Anand and Magnus Carlsen (challenger) in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, where Anand grew up. Usually, world championships had been played on neutral ground. Fischer played Spassky in Iceland; Alekhine played Capablanca in Buenos Aires. The Soviets always played in Moscow. However, sponsorship is needed for these matches, and the decision to accept the Chennai bid was taken by FIDE. The Challenger was victorious winning 3 games and achieving the necessary 6.5 points to win the title at the end of game 10. Magnus Carlsen, 22 and from Norway is therefore the current World Chess Champion.
These players are included (pre-18th century) on little more than opinion, and (18th century) on the basis of more substantial information. Some authors of important early works on chess are noted.
| Name | Year | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Francesch Vicent (author) | ~1475 |  Spain (Catalonia) |
| Luis Ramirez de Lucena (author) | ~1490 | Spain |
| Pedro Damiano (author) | ~1512 | .svg){kind=small} Portugal |
| Ruy López de Segura (author) | 1559–1575 | Spain |
| El Morro | ~1560–1575 | Portugal |
| Leonardo da Cutri | 1575 |  Kingdom of Naples |
| Paolo Boi | 1575 |  Kingdom of Sicily |
| Giulio Polerio | ~1580 | Kingdom of Naples |
| Alessandro Salvio (author) | ~1600 | Kingdom of Naples |
| Gioachino Greco (author) | ~1620–1634 | Kingdom of Naples |
| Pietro Carrera | ~1640 | Kingdom of Sicily |
| Kermur de Légal | ~1730–1745 |  France |
| Philip Stamma (author) | 1745 |  England |
| Ercoli del Rio (author) | ~1750 |  Italy (Duchy of Modena) |
| Giambattista Lolli (author) | ~1760 | Italy (Duchy of Modena) |
| Domenico Ponziani (author) | ~1770 | Italy (Duchy of Modena) |
| Philidor (author) | 1745–1795 | France |
| Johann Baptist Allgaier (author) | ~1795–~1815 |  Austrian Empire |
| Verdoni | ~1795–~1804 | Italy |
| Jacob Henry Sarratt (author) | ~1805–~1815 | England |
| Alexandre Deschapelles | 1815–1821 | France |
These players are included on the basis of their winning matches against credible opponents. Champions are numbered from Steinitz onwards, because his match against Zukertort was publicly declared as a world championship and generally accepted.
| Name | Year | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais | 1821–1840 | France |
| Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant | 1840–1843 | France |
| Howard Staunton | 1843–1851 | England |
| Adolf Anderssen | 1851–1858 1862–1866 |
 Prussia |
| Paul Morphy | 1858–1862 |  United States |
| 1. Wilhelm Steinitz | 1886–1894 |  Austria-Hungary England United States |
| 2. Emanuel Lasker | 1894–1921 |  Germany |
| 3. José Raúl Capablanca | 1921–1927 |  Cuba |
| 4. Alexander Alekhine | 1927–1935 1937–1946 |
 Russia France |
| 5. Max Euwe | 1935–1937 |  Netherlands |
Long matches, initially best of 24 games.
| # | Name | Year | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Mikhail Botvinnik | 1948–1957 1958–1960 1961–1963 |
 Soviet Union (Russia) |
| 7 | Vasily Smyslov | 1957–1958 |  Soviet Union (Russia) |
| 8 | Mikhail Tal | 1960–1961 | Soviet Union (Latvia) |
| 9 | Tigran Petrosian | 1963–1969 | Soviet Union (Armenia) |
| 10 | Boris Spassky | 1969–1972 | Soviet Union (Russia) |
| 11 | Robert J. Fischer | 1972–1975 |  United States |
| 12 | Anatoly Karpov | 1975–1985 |  Soviet Union (Russia) |
| 13 | Garry Kasparov | 1985–1993 | Soviet Union (Azerbaijan) |
FIDE world champions 1993–2006These knock-out events are separately numbered.
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Classical world champions 1993–2006These are matches of the traditional kind, and of 15 or 20 games.
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Variously, 12-game classical match format and double-round all-play-all tournament.
| # | Name | Year | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Vladimir Kramnik | 2006–2007 |  Russia |
| 15 | Viswanathan Anand | 2007–2013 |  India |
| 16 | Magnus Carlsen | 2013–present |  Norway |
| Name | Years | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Vera Menchik | 1927–1944 | Russia /  Czechoslovakia / England |
| Lyudmila Rudenko | 1950–1953 | Soviet Union (Ukraine) |
| Elisabeth Bykova | 1953–1956 | Soviet Union (Russia) |
| Olga Rubtsova | 1956–1958 | Soviet Union (Russia) |
| Elisabeth Bykova | 1958–1962 | Soviet Union (Russia) |
| Nona Gaprindashvili | 1962–1978 | Soviet Union /  Georgia |
| Maia Chiburdanidze | 1978–1991 | Soviet Union / Georgia |
| Xie Jun | 1991–1996 |  People's Republic of China |
| Susan Polgar | 1996–1999 |  Hungary / United States |
| Xie Jun | 1999–2001 | People's Republic of China |
| Zhu Chen | 2001–2004 | People's Republic of China |
| Antoaneta Stefanova | 2004–2006 |  Bulgaria |
| Xu Yuhua | 2006–2008 | People's Republic of China |
| Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2008–2010 | Russia |
| Yifan Hou | 2010–2012 | People's Republic of China |
| Anna Ushenina | 2012–2013 |  Ukraine |
| Yifan Hou | 2013–2015 | People's Republic of China |
| Mariya Muzychuk | 2015-2016 | Ukraine |
| Yifan Hou | 2016- |  People's Republic of China |
